The RrrL: Empire garden (Lanley) – An unexpected Chinese affair.

(中文)

An unexpected Saturday afternoon has driven me take my mother out for a spin. For some unknown reason, my mom really likes to go cross the border. It is probably because crossing the border give us a sense of “going out” feel. It feels more like a vacation. Also the stuffs is definitely cheaper across the border due to higher Canadian currency. So, we decided to cross the tiniest Aldergrove crossing. What’s there? The Edaleen Dairy. It has the cheapest and softest ice cream cone.

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Don’t easily dismiss this tiny dairy. Waves and waves of customer flock to here from locals and Canada. Everyone comes out the store with a huge software ice cream and a happy smile on their face. This might just be the closest ice cream store in US to Canada.

Back to the main subject, after crossing the deserted 回border and pass through the magical Langley. No offense, but before tonight I thought Langley is a place that only has farms and animal. By this time, it is way pass dinner time, I reluctantly checked the famous sherman’s food adventure for idea ~

When in doubt, Sherman really offers some strongest coverage of lower mainland’s food adventure. I meant even travel guide, critic site, really have a hard time to cover suburb area.

Ahhh…Empire Garden Chinese Food…the comment he wrote…authentic…Even though, it certainly looks like it is authentic but come on!! Langley….Really??

There wasn’t a lot of choice in the middle of the night. And hunger could really kill you. Let’s have a try~

As I stepped in the store, I felt a glimpse of hope. Nice and illuminated store with pretty decent decoration. Good Sign~

It is hard to go to a Chinese restaurant with limited people, but with packing the left over in mind who care, just order lots and lots. Reading the menu page to page. The pricing is beautiful. Everything starts as low as 9.xx. It feels like 1997 all over again. But, even crappy dirty ugly Chinese restaurant asks for this price. Maybe the dish is tiny?

First dish – Duck lettuce wrap, wow mountain of crunchy fresh lettuce. Nicely flavored stir fried duck dices. The meat is a little tiny bit oily but wrapped around the fresh lettuce. Very delicious. (I guess no Tiny Dish!)

Second of all – Scallop with 4 vegetables. From the name I was thinking the scallop must be one of those dry tiny one, but when the dish is served I was shocked again. Vegetable is neatly placed on top of each other then drenched with braised scallop sauce. The sweetness of the sauce brings out the natural sweetness in the vegetables. Two thumbs up!

Third, orange chicken. Nice sweet and source sauce made from orange combined with the lightly breaded crunchy thin chicken. ~ Nicely executed. There is even a red pepper flower decoration.

Lastly, the fried rice. The fried rice is executed completely. There is no highlight about the fried rice. But the rice is nice and firm with slight soy sauce flavor. Pretty good.

Surprised Surprised. This restaurant totally kicks ass and proved that I am wrong about Langley. In addition, I also found many interesting places in Langley that I will want to come back to visit. Just the other day, I went to play golf at Newland Golf course. Nice little golf course.
The level of execution and flavor is top notch and very comparable to the popular location in Richmond.